


after it all

by aelisheva



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Developing Relationship, F/M, Sharing Clothes, jill doesn't know what a hoodie is, jill is cold so ben gives her the jacket over his hoodie.....
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:19:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29044485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelisheva/pseuds/aelisheva
Summary: In 1963, shortly after the JFK assassination, Jill is suddenly killed in a freak train accident. When she wakes up, she's in the afterlife with someone named Ben Hargreeves.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves/Jill
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	after it all

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evelinaonline](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evelinaonline/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVE!! ilysm and i hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy this gift <333
> 
> content warning for brief mentions of food, drugs, the destiny's children cult, and the (non graphic) train accident that killed jill here

For a second, when Jill woke up, she thought she’d just taken some more of those pills that Klaus had gifted everyone back in ‘62 Amsterdam. After all, the entire forest clearing around her (wherever it was) was a faded black and white, like she’d stepped into one of her mother’s old high school photographs. Then she looked down and her outfit was still light blue. 

And lacking any and all bloodstains. She thought there’d be more of those, especially after what happened to her last night. (Was it tomorrow yet? The white and gray sky didn’t look like day or night.)

The….accident had happened to her a week or so after President Kennedy had been assassinated. Ever since that grim afternoon, Jill had been feeling shocked and scared for the future. Not only that, but Klaus had basically abandoned the Children and Keechie was still trying to take the helm, so the whole commune was also going through some unexpected changes. The night _ it _ happened to her, all she’d really wanted was to get away from the noise from both her mind and the other Children. She’d gone on a long solo meditation session, and then a grilled asparagus dinner in the clearing where she’d rolled around in the dirt with Klaus just a week or so before. This week, this night, it was a lot quieter there now.

After that, Jill had decided to go for a walk near the outskirts of the commune. Out near the train station.

She hadn’t seen or heard the train coming while she was stumbling around the tracks. She really hadn’t. She was just fumbling around with her flashlight, making shadow puppets and trying to spot dandelions to pick. Anything to distract herself from the news from the Kennedys and the noise back at the commune. But then suddenly from behind her there was a rush of air and a rumbling and something behind her getting louder and brighter and ---

  
  
  
  


And now she was here. Wherever  _ here  _ was. She brushed some dirt off her blue blouse. The dirt fell back onto the gray ground, settling. She balled her hands into fists. No bloodstains. No injuries. No pain at  _ all _ after being crushed by a  _ fucking speeding train. Was she actually -- _

“Hello?” Jill jumped at the voice behind her. “Uh….I thought I heard some noise up here. Is there an, uh, new arrival here?”

Jill steeled her shoulders before turning around to face them, a figure dressed in all black. “Where exactly is ‘here?’”

The figure was five feet away from her. He didn’t make any effort to move any closer. Oh God. Good news never came from far away. “Well. Um. Jill, there’s no easy way to say this, but….you’re dead. This is the afterlife.”

She clapped a hand to her mouth. “Oh my God,” she mumbled. She tried to get out more but her voice was wavering and her throat was tightening up and….

The stranger rushed over to her to hug her as she dropped to the ground to curl up in a ball of tears.

***

The stranger’s name, as it turned out, was Ben. And apparently he’d died twice, once in 1963 and once in 2006...2006, as in forty-three years from now?? Had she really been here that long? Or maybe not, maybe time just worked differently here in wherever-they-were. Maybe the afterlife was both removed from time and a part of it. As much as she’d enjoyed Philosophy Club at school, thinking about this for too long made her head hurt. Or thinking about anything related to this place, for that matter. Unfortunately, it’d be easier for her to forget she was dead if her and Ben’s clothing were the only things that weren’t monochrome.

Jill shuddered. “Is it always so cold up here?” She crossed her arms around her thin blue blouse. “Or down here? Or -- whatever direction purgatory is. If we’re there.” She rubbed her hands against her crossed arms like a match against flint.

“Well uh…if you’re really cold I could give you my leather jacket. You know, the one over my hoodie.”

She just blinked at him. Wait, was that too forward of him? Guys always did that in movies and girls always loved it. Although this wasn’t a movie --

“Oh wait, is the ‘hoodie’ your hooded jacket?”

“Yeah! Yeah. When I was alive, in 2006, we called these hoodies.”

“Oh, okay. Then sure, that’d be really nice of you.” She gave a small smile.

“Okay.” He smiled back. He pulled down the arms of his jacket and handed her the lump of leather. The bottom rim of his hoodie shifted up above his belly button as he moved his arms around.

Jill took the jacket ( _ not _ the “hoodie,” okay, got it) and examined it. She definitely kept her eyes there and  _ not _ on Ben’s stomach, which was now easier to see with just the hoodie raised up. It was actually pretty lean and muscled and…..Nope, nope, back to the jacket.

She fiddled with the metal zipper until it stuck in place, then zipped it all the way up. In an instant, she felt warmer. Like being wrapped in a big portable blanket. And what was that? When Ben’s back was turned, she grabbed some inside fabric and took a deeper smell. It smelled like the ocean, all waves and wind. Did he live near a beach? She’d have to ask him later. She’d have to ask him a lot of other things too, eventually.


End file.
